Newsletter - Dec 2016

BERLINALE TALENTS 2017 CALLS FOR “COURAGE: AGAINST ALL ODDS”

Berlinale Talents will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a cracking new theme, “Courage: Against All Odds”, illustrated by key visuals encouraging filmmakers to make daring artistic choices. From February 11 to 16, 2017, HAU Hebbel am Ufer will once again host 250 exceptional Talents and over 100 experts for a stellar programme of discussions, workshops and networking sessions. We can’t wait!

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE SELECTION COMMITTEE

Next year’s lucky Talents have been chosen and will hear from us in the coming days. Before they’re officially announced in January, you may be wondering who’s behind the selection process, how it works and what was especially noticeable this year. Meet our lovely selection committee: Rebecca de Pas (Italy), Marcie Jost (Germany), Kevin Murphy (USA) and Ana Zamboni (Mexico). Click here for our interview with the team.

INTERNATIONAL ROUNDUP: RIO, TOKYO AND BUENOS AIRES

In a unique event connecting the Portuguese-speaking countries of the world, six young film critics from Brazil, Portugal and Mozambique gathered at Talent Press Rio from October 6-16 to cover the Festival do Rio and hone their skills with experienced journalists. See their reviews here.

Talents Tokyo 2016 was a resounding success, with 15 participants from East and Southeast Asia attending the programme from November 21-26. The experts included director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, producer Isabelle Glachant, world sales manager Alexandra Abykova and Berlinale Talents programme manager Florian Weghorn.

The 12th edition of Talents Buenos Aires will examine “The State of Things” at Universidad del Cine from April 18-22, 2017. Applications are still open until December 15 for filmmakers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Good luck! Apply here

KICKSTARTER PARTNERSHIP

Our Kickstarter partnership is off to a flying start. Five distinctive alumni campaigns have already become a reality thanks to the Kickstarter community, starting with Bruce LaBruce’s The Misandrists. Right now you can check out and support the three ongoing alumni campaigns, Alex Lora’s documentary Thy Father’s Chair, Diego Sarmiento’s short Supay and Cynthia Lowen’s doc Netizens on our dedicated Berlinale Talents page.

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS

Our alumni films have been racking up nominations and awards around the world. Director Ahmed Saleh (Berlinale Talents 2013) won Best Foreign Animation at the 2016 Student Academy Awards with his short Ayny. The contenders for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2017 Academy Awards include Ivan Marinovic’s Montenegrin entry The Black Pin (Script Station 2013) and Juho Kuosmanen’s (Berlinale Talents 2009) Finnish nomination The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki. At the Hanoi Film Festival, Pham Ngoc Lan (Berlinale Talents 2015) took home the Best Short Film Director Award with Another City.

Jacqueline Lentzou’s (Berlinale Talents 2015) The Fox was named Best International Short by the Cinema & Gioventu Jury in Locarno. Director Rungano Nyoni (Berlinale Talents 2010) secured funding from the World Cinema Fund for her film I Am Not a Witch. Finally, this year’s Sundance line-up includes writer-director John Trengove and producer Elias Ribeiro’s The Wound (Script Station 2014), writer-director Kirsten Tan’s Pop Aye (Script Station 2014) and director Kyoko Miyake’s (Berlinale Talents 2010) documentary Tokyo Idols.

And last but not least… Happy holidays from everyone at Berlinale Talents. Bring on 2017!

UPCOMING DATES AND EVENTS

December 15, 2016: Deadline for universities and colleges applying to the Berlin International Film Festival for accreditation | www.berlinale.de

January 6, 2017: Registration deadline for the European Film Market (February 9-17, 2017) and accreditation deadline for the Berlin International Film Festival | www.efm-berlinale.de | www.berlinale.de

Berlinale Talents is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a business division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with the Creative Europe MEDIA programme of the European Union, Robert Bosch Stiftung and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.